


Poe Dameron and the Ethical Treatment of Droids

by rinskiroo



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Academy/University AU, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, BB-8 Ships It, BB-8 is their child, Droid Ethics, Droid rights, F/M, Falling In Love, Fluff, Friendship, Rey and Poe build BB-8, almost
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-21
Updated: 2018-03-21
Packaged: 2019-04-05 12:16:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,169
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14044092
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rinskiroo/pseuds/rinskiroo
Summary: Poe and Rey are both students at the New Republic Academy.  Cadet Dameron has the crazy idea to build his own astromech, but he's terribly unqualified to do so.  He enlists the help of engineering student Rey, who isn't thrilled to have someone come in and bother her during her final project.  Along the way, Poe learns more than he thought he would.





	Poe Dameron and the Ethical Treatment of Droids

Poe had always had an affinity for machinery.  First, it was his mother’s A-Wing, which he knew each part, each bolt, every scratch.  There was a speeder he bought as a teen and rebuilt almost every summer until he left for the Academy.  The harvester that he’d refitted into a podracer and nearly set fire to his mother’s tree… Poe crossed that one off the list of “successful” engineering experiments.

Poe didn’t really think about droids growing up.  There were a few around town, but Poe quickly picked up the language the harvesters were coded in so there was no need for a translation droid.  His father always found them a little annoying, and his mother had never needed one for flying.  But Poe always had his eyes on an X-Wing, and those came standard with astromechs.

“I want to build it,”  Poe told Professor Fino Li, dean of robotics at the Academy, during his last year before graduation.  “I don’t want one from a factory.  I want to put it together myself.”

“That’s a rather unusual ask, Cadet Dameron.  And you’re not even _in_ any of my classes—you’re on the command track.”

“General Antilles already signed off on it.  He said as long as you approve and it passes all of the checklists for factory-built astromechs—”

“And you graduate in less than a year?  That’s how long you have to finish this?  Along with all of your other coursework and flight hours?  Designing and building their own droid is something my fourth year students do as their final grade.  I assign it the last day of their third year so they get over a year to work on it—and they all know it’s coming.  Some start on it freshman year and improve their design during their time here.”

“I can do it,”  he said with conviction.  There hasn’t been a challenge yet that Poe hasn’t overcome.  Sometimes, there has been a bit of a fire he had to put out first, but he always came out on the other side.

The professor frowned at him, but tapped the datapad on the desk thoughtfully.  Poe felt buoyed that at least he was considering it.

“Two conditions:”

“Yes?”

“First, you’ll have to audit the Droid Ethics class.”

“Ethics?”

“You’re creating life, Dameron.  It demands respect, and fair treatment.”

Okay.  He could do that.  Just an audit, not a grade.  “And the second?”

“You don’t have time to design and build your own, but—”  The professor held up his hand to stop any interruptions because Poe was very ready to interrupt and continue pleading his case.  “I have one very bright student building an astromech.  Her name is Rey and she’s brilliant, but fiercely self-reliant.  You can meet with her and present your case.  _If_ she agrees, you can work together, and your creation, should it pass inspection, can be your flight companion.”

Poe grinned and nodded and thanked the professor.  Convince one girl to let him help on her final project?  He’d seen the how frazzled the engineering students could get during the crunch weeks—she’d be begging for help.  He probably didn’t even need to pull off that ol’ Dameron charm.

“Good luck,”  Professor Fino Li said as he left, sounding not nearly as convinced as Poe felt.

 

Poe found her, as he figured he would, tucked into one of the robotics labs after hours.  All he could see was a brown bun sitting on top of her head as it bobbed behind a workbench piled high with parts.

“No no no!”  He heard her cry out followed by a pop and sizzle and the distinct smell of burning.

Poe grabbed the fire extinguisher off the wall and quickly moved over to her.  There was a small flame flickering out of the round enclosure, but a few quick sprays of the suppressant and it was gone.  Both humans coughed and waved their hands to dissipate the smoke—Rey had the good sense to rush over to a window and open it before the smoke alarm caught on that something was on fire and doused them (and everything in the lab) with water.

“You _idiot_!  You foul, mottled, son of a _gundark_!  What were you _thinking_!”  In addition to the sharp insults she was throwing at him, she started hitting him (rather hard) on the arm.

Poe held up the extinguisher in between them lest she find a spanner or something else to start assaulting him with.  “Hey!  I just saved you from that fire!”

“You fried the whole motor!  I could have saved him!”  It took her a minute to let go of the anger, but then wrapped her arms around the charred half-sphere on the workbench.  “I’m sorry, Seven, I thought we really had it this time.”

Poe stood awkwardly by as she started slowly cleaning up the space.  She inspected different parts and tossed ones she’d deemed irreparable.  He replaced the extinguisher where he’d found it, then stood by some more, just as awkwardly.

“So, I’m Poe, and Professor Fino Li told me that we could work together on your final project.”

Rey looked up from the remains of the droid with a rather confused expression.  She gave him a quick look over, her eyes settling on the parts of the uniform that told her that he was decidedly not supposed to be in this section of the campus.  “I know he doesn’t like me, but I really don’t think he’d sabotage four _years_ of work.”

“He actually talked you up quite a bit,”  Poe said and pulled the small datapad out of his pocket and handed it to her.  He watched quietly as she scrolled through forms and the letter the professor had hastily written for her.  “I know you probably don’t really need my help, but this is something I feel I have to do.  This was the only way he’d let me do it.”

Rey let out a heavy sigh and looked over the mess in front of her.  She looked sad, disappointed, angry—and Poe felt for her.  He didn’t really think it was his fault this version of the droid was a non-starter, but he wanted to help her, and not just for himself.

“You’re a pilot, right?”  she asked, again eying a patch on his uniform.  “So you can go off-world and pick up a few things we’ll need?”

“I’m sure I can make it work,”  he said as he grinned that sure-to-please Dameron smile.

“People don’t tell you no often, do they?”

“They do.  I just ignore them.”

 

Poe was prepared for hard work, getting his hands dirty, maybe a few hairs singed by a welding tool, but so far he was a delivery boy.  Rey made lists of the parts she needed— _exact_ lists, where there was to be _no_ deviation—and he went to retrieve them.  There were things she asked for where he was sure she was just screwing with him.  Though, as long as they made progress, he was happy to pick up her favorite chocolates and the incense she insisted helps her think.

While she soldered the circuit board, she quizzed him on his Droid Ethics class.  He reminded her that he only had to audit it—no assignments or tests.  Rey liked to tell him that the professor will no doubt ask his thoughts during the final inspections.  She seemed to take a sort of glee knowing he’d be under the same sort of scrutiny she usually endured.

“So droids _are_ alive?”  Poe asked her as he rotated slowly around on one of the stools while she worked.

“They possess language—”

“That we programmed into them.”

“They practice self-preservation—”

“Again, we program them to do that.”

“They possess the capability to create new droids, program new droids—isn’t that procreation?”

Poe sighed and shook his head.  He understood the text book and the lectures, but in practice, the ethical treatment of droids didn’t make much sense to him.  They were machines, created by people for jobs.  “Droids can’t use the Force.”

“What do you know about the Force, Poe Dameron?”

The question shook him.  Not the substance, but the calm way she asked.  It wasn’t really a challenge, but then it was.  Like she was daring him to to explain to her about the Force only to turn his assumptions back around.  “I admit, not a lot, but my mother knew Luke Skywalker.”

Usually, people were rather impressed by that factoid about his family.  He’d then get to tell lots of his family’s rebel stories after that name drop, but she didn’t look too fazed by it.  “Then you know about his droid, Artoo, and how he just happened to fall out of the sky onto Tatooine and wind up purchased by Luke Skywalker.  _Just happened_ ,”  she said with a bit of sing-song to her voice as she looked up and smiled at him.

“Maybe the Force helped push them in the right direction, but the _droids_ weren’t using the Force,”  he countered.

“But they were still influenced by it.  Therefore they exist within it.  Your argument is moot.”

Poe let out a half-amused huff and went back to the painting she’d given him.  The droid was nowhere near complete, but she wanted to keep him busy and had assigned him the simple task of painting the outer plating of the chassis.

“Do you know what droids without restraining bolts or loyalty programming do?”  she asked after several moments of working in silence.  “Near ninety-seven percent leave their owners.  They just start to wander.  They process information at a nearly incalculable rate and their most basic instinct is to explore.  One could call that free will.”

Poe paused to think about what she had said.  He wasn’t sure if it was free will or wandering due to lack of direction, but in a way, it almost made sense.  “Yeah,”  he said to the empty orange and white shell in front of him.  “I can see that.”

“Is that why you became a pilot?”

“No.  I’m a pilot because my mom’s a pilot and flying is the greatest feeling in the galaxy.  But, there’s no wars to fight so… might as well see everything there is to see.”  He rotated his seat around and watched her, hunched over the workbench.  “You always wanted to be an engineer?”

Rey shrugged her shoulders, barely looking up from her work.  “It’s just something I’ve always done, was good at it.  It got me this far, might as well keep going.”

“But it’s not what you want?”

She looked up and over at him, as if it was the first time someone had ever asked her what she wanted.  “I want to explore, too.  Leave this place and see a world full of water instead of buildings.”

“Why don’t you?”

Rey didn’t answer.  She went back to work and packed up at the time they usually stopped.  Gave him a quick goodbye before she went.

 

Poe wasn’t gossiping, and he wasn't sneaking around.  He just wanted to know more about her, but Rey was a closed book.  She was happy to tell him all about droids and their rights and how they deserved fair treatment and the difference between different drive models, but one question about herself—

“You’ve been asking around about me?”  she asked him accusingly; spanner in her hand, poised to jab right through his chest if she didn't like the answer.  Not that he really thought she would do it—he hoped.

“Yeah.  I know your name’s Rey and that you’re super smart and apparently have a temper, and that’s it.”

“That’s it?”  Another jab with her tool.

“Yeah,”  he lied.  Poe hated lying, but he thought he’d hate getting stabbed or clobbered a lot worse.  “You keep to yourself and that’s cool.  You do you.”

She pulled away and Poe straightened his uniform jacket.  He should have figured she was scrappy.  What he had found out was that Rey had lived on this planet her whole life, but not in a very good part of it.  She grew up an orphan, in a group home, and by dumb luck—or maybe the Force—someone discovered what a engineering prodigy she was and punched her ticket to the Academy.

“Just seems kind of lonely,”  he said after she had backed away and started digging through the day’s materials.

“How can I be lonely?  I got you bothering me all the time.”

Though she offered him a small smile, maybe as an apology for threatening him with a tool, he could tell she was still rather annoyed with him.  They worked in silence for most of the afternoon.

“Why do you want to do this?  Build an astromech?”  she asked him as the evening wore on.

“Because I want to understand how my co-pilot works.  I’m going to be putting my life into that thing’s hands and I have to trust it.”

“Do you plan to build your own X-Wing, too?”

“Do you think they’ll let me?”  he asked with a foolish grin.

Rey was fighting back a laugh, he could tell.  She had been angry with him, but slowly was letting go of it.  Now, she was trying to avoid the fact that he was actually charming when he wanted to be.  “Let’s get back to work.  We only have a few months left and we haven’t even figured out power flow.”

“It’d go faster if you’d actually let me help.”

“I doubt it,”  she said as she settled back into her place at the workbench and pulled the safety goggles on over her eyes.

Poe shook his head and hovered nearby, though she shot him a couple of looks to tell him to stop.  Instead, he picked up the datapad that had all of the blueprints, notes, and plans on it and began scrolling through it.  He’d read over most of it already, and her research and ideas were sound.

“You’re really sold on the sphere, huh?”  he asked as he flipped through her designs.

“It’s going to give him a fuller range of motion.  He’ll be able to do more varied tasks.  Imagine if he could rotate his main processor to the different physical systems on a fighter?  Failures or damage that was once catastrophic could be repaired in flight.”

“Huh,”  Poe grunted, utterly impressed.  It was a bold, clever, ingenious idea, but it was the rotating processing unit that was causing them the most problems.  A key piece of the design that she wouldn’t compromise on.  “What about selenium for the drive?  I read a thing recently—about magnetism and power transfer.”

Rey stopped and pushed the goggles up onto her forhead.  “Selenium is rather new and expensive technology—do you still have that article?”

Two days later, Poe found himself on another milk run, only this one was a selenium run.  Rey had protested, rather strongly at first, because this was supposed to be _her_ project.  Poe had convinced her that eventually, if it worked, it would be his droid.  He should be allowed to invest in the best available parts for it.  She couldn’t really argue with that sort of logic and sent him away again with more exact specifications for what they’d need.

She actually let him help when he returned, and he couldn’t help the grin when he saw that she was impressed that he did understand a bit of what he was doing.

“Things break all the time on the farm.  Someone has to fix ‘em,”  he told her.

“Fixing is very different from designing and creating.”

“Yeah, I’m learning that,”  he agreed with a smile.  “Professor Fino Li was right—no way I could have done this on my own.  Thanks for agreeing to it.”

“If this selenium idea works, it was probably worth it,”  she said with a grin.

After Poe had fitted the drive into the main section of the chassis and closed it up, Rey delicately held the half-sphere, dome piece above the top of the main body.  She nodded at him and he keyed in the command on the datapad still attached to one of the ports.  They both held their breath as the hum of power started and Poe swore he heard Rey squeak when the magnets on the dome activated and attached to the chassis.

A small chime came from the droid and it warbled out a series of beeps.  Poe, who understood most machines, picked out the basics of a startup sequence, but other than that it sounded like nonsense.  Its dome rotated, the camera eye zooming and focusing on each one of their faces.  Poe was grinning like a madman, but when he looked at Rey, she was practically glowing.  He didn’t noticed the blinking warning on the datapad until the droid beeped out what sounded like “uh-oh” before powering down.

Rey gasped and caught the dome in her arms before it could fall to the floor as the magnets deactivated.  She gently set the piece down onto the workbench and ran her fingers across the top of it.

“Rey, I’m sorry—”  Poe started.  They’d come so close, but they’d lost power again.  At least it didn’t catch on fire—he didn’t smell any smoke, yet.

But when she looked back at him, there were tears in her eyes and he thought her face should hurt from smiling so big.  She laughed and launched her arms around him in a tight hug.  “We did it!  He was awake!  He tried to speak!”

“Yeah, but—”

“Poe, this is more progress than we’ve had all year!”  She pulled back, seeming to realize the sudden intimacy of the embrace.  They’d barely even shook hands; the closest they ever came was handing tools back and forth.  Not that Poe minded, but she looked embarrassed, so he let her pull away.

Rey started going on about the next steps they needed to take, adjustments to make.  Poe handed her the datapad so she could record all of her notes instead of just talking at him.  He’d never remember everything and a lot of it sounded important.

“And—!”  she started enthusiastically.  “Because we know the concept is sound, we can start working on programming the processor.”

“What are you going to call it?”  Poe asked.  “It needs a designation and not just you calling it ‘baby’.”

She frowned at the gibe, but understood he did it only in jest.  He had asked her before, why all of her notes referred to the droid as ‘baby’.  She told him that when she would carry around early versions of the chassis, some uncharitable other students had teased her, asking if she was pregnant.  Poe thought that at this age, and the prestigious environment, people would have grown out of school yard taunts, but it seemed some people never grew up.

“Maybe ‘Bee-bee’,”  she said softly as she plugged the datapad cable into the dome.  “Bee-bee-eight.”

Poe smiled at her.  She didn’t care what others thought of her or her design.  She believed in herself and she took the mean things people had said and made them her own, made herself stronger.  And the droid _was_ like her child—she’d conceived it and nurtured it.  Now, she was going to teach it.

 

They had worked together on the programming part.  Poe knew what sorts of tasks a flight astromech would need to do, and Rey knew about everything else.  There were things that Poe brought up that Rey hadn’t even thought of.  Poe wanted to teach it loyalty, but not the traditional sort of loyalty programming.  He wanted it to understand friendship, so they uploaded stories of the old Rebellion—particularly tales of R2-D2 and C-3PO.  Stories of pilots who had a special affinity with their ships—like Han Solo and the _Millennium Falcon_ , his mother and her A-Wing.  Poe still mostly thought of droids as tools, but he understood that some of them felt irreplaceable, as much as people were.

“I’m being forced to go to a symposium at Incom,”  Rey told him one day.  They were nearly finished with the programming and ready to do another full-body test.

“That’s awesome!”  Poe said, but she didn’t look as thrilled as he felt.  “If you don’t want to go, can I?”

“No, it’s for a grade.  I think they can tell the difference between you and me.”

Poe settled back into the seat and watched her.  She looked stressed out about such an event, but he realized, while he talked all the time about the different places he’d been, she would just nod and listen.  “Have you ever been off world before?”

“No,”  she admitted quietly.

“Well,”  Poe said as he got to his feet,  “I think it’s going to be awesome.  You’ll probably get to see all their new designs and new tech they’re working on.  They’ll probably be talking about internships and stuff like that.  And—”  He pointed to the datapad sticking out of the bag on her shoulder.  “—you can show them the specs for Beebee-ate.  Tell them they need to make the astromech ports on T-85’s support a full range of droid motion.”

Rey smirked and shook her head.  “They’ll probably laugh at me.”

“Not if they know what’s good for ‘em.  Rey, you’re crazy smart and very convincing—besides, you could always just threaten them with a spanner—ow!”  He laughed and flinched back in mock hurt as she smacked him on the arm.  “ _See_.  This relationship is so abusive.  I’m telling the dean.”

“Thanks, Poe.”

“Anytime, sunshine.”  Before he could lose the moment, Poe reached out and hugged her.  Pulled her in close and squeezed.  He grinned when her arms wrapped around his back and returned the embrace.

“Finish the programming, but don’t put him together until I get back.  Please?”

“Of course.  We’re doing this together.”

 

The day Rey left, BB-8 surprised Poe by asking where she was.  The droid had said small phrases, repeating facts they’d fed it, but nothing of real substance, until now.

“She had to go on a little trip, but she’ll be back soon.  No need to worry.”  He wasn’t sure why he felt he needed to reassure the talking metal head not to worry.  BB-8 went back to reciting facts, things like the dimensions of a Mon Cal cruiser and how many waste receptacles it had, while Poe went back to selecting information catalogues to add to its memory core.

[Rey = maker.  Poe = ?]

Poe looked up from the datapad and blinked at the orange and white dome resting on the workbench.  “Uhm.  Well—you don’t consider me a maker, too?”

There was a low beep meaning definitively negative.

Poe let out a short laugh, but couldn’t deny that Rey had done an overwhelming majority of the work.  “I’m a pilot.  One day, I hope you’ll be the astromech flying with me.”

BB-8 let out an excited trill of noise and started jabbering on about starfighter specs, like it was trying to convince Poe of what a great X-Wing astromech it would be.  While adorable and endearing, it was incessant, but Poe managed to drown out most of the beeping while he worked.  After finishing the downloads, he moved on to double check the connections inside the chassis.  He knew Rey would want to do another test run as soon as she got back.

[Rey + Poe = ?]

Poe looked back towards the dome, its camera zooming in and out as it tried to take in as much information from its immobile state.  Again, he felt a bit stumped by the droid’s questions.  “We’re friends.  Rey and Poe equal friends.”

[Poe + BB-8 = friends?]

“Yes, I guess so.”

There was an excited series of beeps and then a logic train that Poe did not expect, but had him trying desperately to hold back the laughter.

[BB-8 + Poe = friends. Poe + Shara Bey = friends. Shara Bey + Luke Skywalker = friends. Luke Skywalker + R2-D2 = friends. ⇒ BB-8 + R2-D2 = friends!]

“Well, that’s one way to look at it,”  Poe said after the laughter died down.  After Poe had agreed to BB-8’s assumption, there were a series of whistles and beeps that made him feel sorry for the little guy.  “I hope you get to meet Artoo one day, too.  No one’s seen that droid or Luke Skywalker in a long time.

“I dunno, maybe they needed a vacation.  Deserved one, if you ask me.  Artoo’s your hero, huh?  You know who mine is?  Leia Organa.  Yeah, Luke Skywalker can make an amazing shot and swing around a laser sword, but without Leia, the Rebellion would have fallen apart.”

[Leia Organa = Senator]

“Yep, she’s still serving.  Still trying to help people.  Protect the galaxy and all that.”

BB-8 was silent for a moment, which was odd, but it gave Poe’s ears a break.  An unnaturally long silence that made Poe ask,  “You still awake?”

The droid beeped slowly, almost thoughtfully.

[Poe + BB-8 = help people?]

Poe pulled his hand out of the sphere and set the tool he’d been using down.  He rotated his chair towards the little dome resting on the workbench and bent slightly so they were nearly eye-to-camera.  “Yeah, buddy.  There’s still some nasty stuff out there in the galaxy.  The Republic does what it can, but there’s still smuggling and slavery and all sorts of bad stuff out in the Outer Rim.  Our fleet isn’t very big anymore, but what we do, it’s still important.  And my dad always says, we gotta stay vigilant.  Protect the peace that we won.”

[Poe + BB-8 = heroes?]

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.  Gotta get you up to spec first.”  Poe stretched and checked the time.  It was later than he usually spent here and his dorm was all the way on the other side of the campus.  _And_ he had flight training early in the morning.  He reached over to hit the switch and shut everything down for the night, but stopped himself.  It felt strange that he’d been carrying on this conversation and was just going to turn half of it off.  It had been a legitimate back and forth exchange.  Though BB-8 was programmed with topics and information, the droid’s logic processes had gone from indexing data to asking questions to even assumptions about the future.  “Some of these updates require a reboot and it’s probably good for your processor to rest since you’re not connected to your main power source, yet.  Is it okay if I shut you down for the night?  I’ll be back after classes tomorrow, and Rey should be back the day after.”

There was some low warbling, but BB-8 agreed that a brief shut down would be beneficial for his system.

As the power drained and BB-8’s lights blinked out, Poe rested his hand on the dome.  “See you tomorrow, buddy.”

 

“How was Incom?”  Poe asked their first day back in the lab together.

“Surprisingly… a lot of fun,”  she admitted with a smile.  “They had a prototype T-85 on display.  It was _gorgeous_.  You would have been a puddle.”

“Did you show them your design?”

“I did,”  she said as she bit her lip and looked a bit embarrassed over the event.

“And???”

“And they were _intrigued_.  They said it was innovative and daring.  And, if it works—”  She stopped talking, her mouth still hanging open, like something obvious had just dawned on her.

Poe walked closer towards her, an expectant, excited look on his face.  “Keep going!”

“I think they offered me a job?”

“Rey!”  Poe practically screamed and grabbed her by the shoulders.  “That’s amazing!”

“The CEO—Mr. Geris—said if it works, maybe they’d buy the patent and the designs.  And then, this woman, Madame Poma, said ‘why not just hire her and have her refit the astromech port on the T-85’!”

Poe laughed and pulled her in for a hug.  “I’m so proud of you.  Even if it hadn’t gone as well as it did, I’d still be proud of you for putting yourself out there.”

“Enough of that,”  Rey said with a wet laugh as she tried to hold back the swell of emotions.  “Beebee-ate’s waiting for us.”

“Yeah, he is,”  Poe said with a grin.

The droid’s orange and white sphere was sitting on the floor.  Poe had touched up the paint and polished the outer plating to a shine.  The top piece, currently off, was waiting on the workbench.  Rey picked up the dome and ran her fingers lovingly over it.  She whispered something that Poe didn’t quite catch, and then moved to the chassis and held the dome just over the top.

“Ready?”  he asked her.

She nodded and Poe flipped the switch on the back, booting up the selenium drive.  Power hummed and gears inside whirred.  The magnets activated and sucked the dome out of Rey’s hands, attaching it to the sphere.  Even as the whistling started, Rey stayed near to catch the dome just in case BB-8 suddenly lost power.

The dome rotated.  First towards Rey, then towards Poe.  He rolled forward just a centimeter, then back.  It seemed maybe even BB-8 was wondering if the test would fail as he took tentative rolls and moved his dome around his body.  After a minute, there were several excited beeps and Rey and Poe both let out a long breath.

[BB-8 = functional.]

“Yeah, you are, buddy!”  Poe said as he gently tapped the side of the droid’s chassis.  “Go on, roll around.  Power levels look good.”

Rey got to her feet silently, watching in awe as BB-8 rolled around the lab and inspected absolutely everything he came across.

Poe draped his arm over her shoulders and nudged her lightly.  “You did it.”

Rey turned towards him and shook her head slightly, tears forming in her eyes.  “No, we did it.  I thought you were just going to be in my way, but I never would have gotten it done without you.”

“You would have found a way.  I just had a bunch of shortcuts.”

She hugged him again.  It was different this time.  It wasn’t like the friendly, spur of the moment, celebratory hugs they’d shared before.  Her face nestled into his shoulder and her arms squeezed around his waist.  Poe lifted one of his hands to her hair and dug his fingers underneath the usual bun it was tied in.  They stood there like that, quietly enjoying the close, intimate feeling, until BB-8 rolled up and knocked into their legs.

Rey smiled at him before bending down to check on BB-8’s antenna and discuss all the interesting things he’d found in the lab.

 

Because they’d finished way before the deadline, Poe and Rey were able to do a lot of practical tests with BB-8.  They showed him around the campus—Poe was excited to show both Rey and BB-8 the pilot training facilities.  He gave them a tour of the flight simulators, the X-Wing hangars, and introduced them to the other cadets.

BB-8 still wasn’t allowed to get into an X-Wing, but General Antilles agreed to let Poe and Rey work on modifying one of the training fighters to fit BB-8’s specs.  Though he couldn’t fly, yet, Poe was able to put BB-8 into the training simulator and show him a few things.  It wasn’t the same—a sim could never replicate what flying was really like, but it was close enough to mark some data points.  And BB-8 certainly enjoyed himself.

A few adjustments had to be made as all of his parts were gradually broken in, but on the whole, BB-8’s drive and processes were stable.  Power flow worked perfectly.  Sometimes, he lost his dome if he misjudged speed and distance, but a replacement camera with a sharper lens and a few extra magnets under the dome minimized the problem.

Rey was running him through some computation tests when Poe walked into the lab in the middle of the day near the end of the academic year.  It was odd for him to be around this early in the day, and he was feeling rather off.  He wasn’t really sad, or confused, though that was part of it.  It was more like life had just thrown him a curve ball and he wasn’t sure how to deal with it.

BB-8 rolled up to him and bumped him in the leg.  Poe reached down and patted him lightly, but then asked,  “Hey, buddy, can you… you know.  Mom and dad gotta talk.”

The droid let out a sad little whistle then rolled off to recharge out of listening range.

Rey laughed at the quip he often made about being BB-8’s parents, but gave him an understanding look as he settled down onto the seat next to her.  “You had your last ethics class today.”

“How did you know?”  he asked.

“That’s how most students look after they get that last lecture.”

“Why spend the entire year convincing us that droids have free will and rights and deserve to be treated equally, only to end it like that?  The final lesson is that ultimately droids are tools and we use them, just like we use a spanner or a fork or a belt.  We still put a greater value on organic life over artificial life.  In the end, it’s _not_ equal,”  he said, finishing his rant with a sigh.  “What was the point?”

“To get you to think, to question.  Right or wrong, it’s how the galaxy works right now.  That’s not to say ten or hundred years from now, it might be different.”  She rotated slightly on her seat to face him, and rested her fingers on his knee.  “What is BB-8 to you?”

Poe looked from her fingers resting gently on his knee, up her arm, and to her face.  Soft brown eyes and a few adorable freckles across her nose.  The way the hair escaped her bun and just made him want to tuck it back behind her ears.  She was pretty, and smart, and took none of his shit—but the question wasn’t about her.  It was about BB-8.

“He’s… I dunno, calling him like a pet seems condescending.  He’s too smart to be a pet.  He’s curious like a child and has his own hopes and dreams.  He’s like a kid—a really smart, round kid.”  Poe took a long slow breath.  It wasn’t that he really thought of the droid like _his_ child; though maybe, in some way, he did.  All his feelings over the subject were suddenly all muddled up in his mind, and his heart.  “It feels wrong to make him go out into space on potentially dangerous missions if he doesn’t want to.  Maybe he’d rather go to Incom and work on starfighters with you, or do something else totally different.”

Rey smiled at him and squeezed his knee lightly before standing.  “We can ask him.”

Poe swallowed and ran his hands through his hair.  It was unlike him to get all flustered and unsure around someone he liked, but Rey was different.  He couldn’t mess up the solid relationship they’d built—he’d miss her too much.  Not to mention the effect it could have on BB-8.  As strange as that sounded.

“What do you think, buddy?”  Poe asked as the droid rolled back up to them after Rey called him over.  “What do you want to do after graduation?”

[Poe + BB-8 = help people?]

“Well, we could do that.  Or you could go help Rey build starfighters and a whole line of astromechs just like you.  Or you could do something else.  Your choice.”

BB-8 beeped and looked between the two humans.  He trilled almost nervously, his little body rocking back and forth.

[Poe + BB-8 + X-Wing = Rey + BB-8 = friends?]

Rey crouched down next to BB-8 and nodded.  “Of course we’ll still be friends.  And I’ll be sending you loads of messages asking about all the adventures you’ll be on.  Besides, I haven’t even decided about the job at Incom.  Maybe I’ll work for the Republic and find a job at whatever base you and Poe are at.”

BB-8 beeped happily about the idea of the three of them being together after the Academy.  Poe wasn’t as obvious about his excitement at the prospect, but inside he was silently rooting for that possibility.

“No promises, Beebee,”  Rey said with a laugh.  “It’s a lot of bureaucracy to get through for something like that.  You know, _maybe_.”

 

It was the final “test” of his academic career.  BB-8 had passed all of the inspections done for factory-built astromechs with flying colors.  The official conducting the tests even complimented them on their exceptional work.  The fact that BB-8 was also adorable and charming may have even boosted his scores a little.  The last hoop to jump through was presenting BB-8 and all of their work to General Antilles to sign off on approving BB-8 for use in a commissioned X-Wing.

“Your work all looks solid.  The power flow issues in earlier models seem to have all been resolved.  An interesting choice going with a new tech like selenium, but it matches all the other _bold_ design choices you’ve made,”  the General told them.

General Antilles looked down at his datapad as he walked in circles around BB-8, carefully looking at the droid then back to the thesis in his hands.  Rey didn’t have to be at this presentation, but she wanted to.  She said she wanted to support the both of them, and be there in case there were any questions (even though Poe told her she wasn’t supposed to answer, it was supposed to be _his_ presentation).

“You’ve also used an unconventional loyalty program.”

“Yes, General,”  Poe said.  “We chose to teach Beebee-ate about loyalty using real world examples rather than a generic on/off program.  The information is part of his hard processes, so it’s something he’ll always refer to when making decisions.”

“How do you know he’s going to make the right choice?  Come to the same conclusions that you or I would make when confronted with a possible enemy?”

“Should that ever happen, General, I believe Beebee-ate would do whatever it takes to complete the mission at hand.  Which is what I would do.”

General Antilles glanced down at the droid and raised an eyebrow.  “Is Cadet Dameron correct, Beebee-ate?”

[For the Republic!]

The General smirked and a few others who had come to watch the presentation chuckled.  “Good answer.  Though, I also see you’ve made the choice to forgo a restraining bolt which would ensure the astromech follows all your commands.  Shouldn’t a pilot be taking every possible precaution to guarantee mission success as well as safety?”

“Restraining bolts are cruel,”  Rey snapped, much to the surprise of everyone in attendance.

“I didn’t realize you were presenting here today, Miss,”  General Antilles said as he looked towards her.

But Rey didn’t care if she wasn’t supposed to be the one speaking.  “Those bolts impede natural logic trains.  An astromech can process information faster than his organic counterpart, but you would lobotomize him to follow short-sighted commands when he could find a thousand other solutions if given the chance.”

“I was just making an observation,”  General Antilles said coolly.  “Approved droids are not required to be outfitted with restraining bolts.”

Poe took a small step towards her and brushed the back of his hand against hers to try and reassure her.  It was just the way these military panels went.  There was no doubt, in Poe’s mind at least, that BB-8 would be approved for flight.

“I trust in the work that we did, General,”  Poe told him.  “And I trust Beebee-ate.  He’ll make a fine addition to the fleet.”

“I don’t doubt Cadet Dameron’s commitment to throw himself at whatever challenge he or the New Republic faces, but what about you, Beebee-ate?  The task of a starfighter astromech is one that is challenging and dangerous.  Force willing, you won’t see a war like the one I was in, but should that ever happen, how would you respond?”

[Poe + BB-8 = help people. Poe + BB-8 = heroes.]

The next set of beeps and whirs were hard to parse into basic, but everyone there who could understand binary got the intent behind what the droid said.  BB-8 said that he and Poe would be together until they were both inorganic beings—unto death.

Poe swallowed back the unexpected lump in his throat and took a breath when he felt Rey’s fingers squeeze his own.  It was a bigger confirmation of the droid’s loyalty than they could have hoped for, and Poe felt decidedly unworthy of such devotion.

“Congratulations, Cadet,”  General Antilles said, lifting his hand.  Poe pulled his hand away from Rey’s to return the salute and then shook the General’s hand.  “And to you as well, Rey.  I hope you got high marks on your thesis.”

“Yes, sir,”  she answered awkwardly as she shook his hand.  “I did, General.”

There was a brief discussion with the other attendants asking questions and complimenting the work they’d done.  Rey, though it technically wasn’t her presentation, was happy to answer questions and talk about the work they’d done.  At the end, BB-8 was certified as flight-ready and would accompany Poe to his first duty assignment after graduation.

After the last person had left the room, Poe grabbed Rey around the middle and spun her around with a happy cheer.  Next to them, BB-8 was also letting out happy beeps as he rolled back and forth.  They’d run out of words to celebrate with—he’d told her a hundred times how proud he was of what they’d done, and how amazing their entire journey had been.

So he kissed her.  Took a chance and pressed his lips to hers and hoped it wasn’t a huge mistake.  It was soft and quick and when he pulled back, she had a small smile on her face and her cheeks were pink.

“Poe, I—”

“I’m sorry.  I probably shouldn’t—”

“No, I was wondering when—if—you were ever going to do that.  Trying to figure out if I should just—”

He kissed her again and he felt her laughing—her lips smiling against his and her chest rumbling as he pulled her in closer.  Poe started laughing, too, when BB-8 let out a low whistle.

“So there’s this graduation party that my flight is putting on,”  he said as they walked out of the room, hands clasped together.  “Lots of loud, rowdy pilots.  I know you’re not much for social stuff, but I want to spend time with you, and them, and if they’re too much, we can leave.”

“It’s not that I don’t _like_ people, they’re just hard.  But,”  she said, smiling at him,  “I’m learning that sometimes letting someone in can make things a little easier.”

BB-8 beeped at them curiously.

Poe laughed and nodded.  “Yeah, Beebee-ate, you can come to the party, too.”

**Author's Note:**

> This was one of those "started as one thing and then went a totally different direction" and 7k words later here we are, but I LOVE IT. It's such a silly premise, but it was so much fun to write, and I hope you liked it, too! :)
> 
> Find me on [tumblr](http://rinskiroo.tumblr.com/).


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